"Beach" vacation

The short version of our vacation goes like this: 1280 miles and 22 hours of driving, to end up vacationing 50 miles from home.

We had been planning our Dauphin Island beach vacation w/ some family and close friends since oh, about February. We headed out Friday, spent the night halfway, and arrived Sat afternoon! It was a beautiful beach house, on a private beach on the bay side. Enter: Isaac. So, we crammed in a fun beach day on Sunday, packed evvvvverything back up Sunday night, did some frantic research and calling to find a new vacation plan for 10 people, and pulled back out on Monday at 6:30 am, ahead of evacuation traffic. 11.5 hours later we pulled into a lovely little vacation home in Hot Springs, AR. Yes, AR. 50 miles from home. And very, very far from any beach. But it had an in-ground pool, ping pong, putt putt, all sorts of fun and games, plus was right near downtown Hot Springs. We still enjoyed a fun week of friends and family, lots of food, staying up too late, and swimming. We're all still sad about the timing of the hurricane, but hoping we can make it back to the beach next year!!

Addendum: Forgot to mention the bit-o-fun that we had Monday night/Tues am. Audrey and I both came down w/ a stomach bug! In the middle of the night, when we were making the bathroom door into a revolving door, I wanted to cry! We had just been kicked out of our glorious beach house, driven nearly 12 straight hours, and then we were both sicky sick! Thankfully Dr. Daddy called in some zofran, took great care of us, and we were feeling much better w/in 24 hrs!